The Chocolate Cornet
Nov. 27th, 2018 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
duckyshimetaiTitle: The Chocolate Cornet
Pairing: Yama (Ohno/Sho)
Rating: PG
Summary: Sho has a strange habit at every bakery he visits... what could be the reason?
Warnings: None
A/N: Written forpompomshoes for 2018 ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fishing_mj :It's a simple and short story, but I really hope you enjoy it! I'm sorry it's not longer... RL was a struggle ^^; Shoutout goes to my favourite beta for being speedy and thorough, you know who you are ♥
Aiba Masaki loved sweets. It was great, then, that one of his best friends at college, Sakurai Sho, loved them too. They would visit many cafés and bakeries together in their free time. But there was one thing that Sho always did at each new bakery that intrigued Aiba greatly.
Sho would always order the same thing first from each bakery - the chocolate cornet.
At the start, Aiba had thought that Sho simply liked chocolate cornets, but then, after he tasted it, his face would fall slightly, and he would never buy chocolate cornets again on subsequent trips to the same place.
This happened so often that Aiba couldn’t hold in his curiosity anymore. One day, when Sho bit into a chocolate cornet and looked forlornly at it for the umpteenth time, Aiba blurted out, “Sho-chan, why do you always do this?”
“Hmm?” Sho gazed at him with a mouthful of cornet.
“I mean, why do you always buy chocolate cornets the first thing when we visit new bakeries? And then you never buy them again.”
Sho swallowed his mouthful and sighed.
“It’s a long story, Aiba-chan.”
======
One of Sho’s fondest memories began one night, in his family’s mansion, when he was just a small boy.
Sho had never had to worry about food, not with his family’s financial affluence. There had been many chefs and apprentices to serve them whatever they desired at every meal. However, Sho had been sent to bed without dinner one night for a mistake he had made, something small that he couldn’t remember even now.
As the night wore on, Sho’s stomach had felt emptier and emptier, until at last he couldn’t stand it, and he crept towards the kitchens.
Along the way, Sho was surprised to find that he smelled the scent of baking bread at that time of the night, and a little light seeped through the gap at the bottom of the kitchen door. He could also hear the sounds of a little murmuring.
Wondering who could be here at such an hour, Sho quietly pushed open the door.
It was another boy who looked slightly older than himself. Startled, the boy stood up and reached for a nearby rolling pin.
Trying to sound bolder than he felt, Sho asked, “Who are you, and what are you doing here at this time of night?”
“I’m Ohno Satoshi.” The boy relaxed a little, but still held his grip. “I’m an apprentice to the head baker, and I’m practising making chocolate cornets.”
As the boy spoke, Sho noticed that indeed there was a sweet, fragrant smell of chocolate around, and that triggered a rumble from his tummy.
Ohno heard and couldn’t stop a giggle from escaping.
“Are you hungry?”
Sho blushed and said yes.
Putting down the rolling pin, Ohno deftly picked up a few pieces of misshapen chocolate cornet and offered them to Sho.
“I’m sorry these aren’t pretty… Master will throw them away if they aren’t perfect, so I stay late to practise and perfect my technique. I think they’re still edible though.”
Sho nodded. The standards set by his parents towards their kitchen staff were extremely high, and nothing less than perfect was allowed to be served.
He took a tentative bite of one of the cornets. Ohno was right, the flavour of the bread was in no way compromised by its appearance. The golden brown bread was soft and fluffy inside, and the chocolate filling left Sho’s tongue in ecstasy with its creamy sweetness.
“This is so good!” he marvelled as he wolfed the cornet down in its entirety. Now it was Ohno’s turn to blush.
“It’s not perfect…” he said, looking down at his feet.
“It tastes amazing!” Sho insisted.
That night, Sho finished half a tray of misshapen chocolate cornets, and found a new friend.
Over the years, the two of them grew closer, from sharing bread to sharing secrets and more. Sho liked how Ohno listened patiently to him, and always helped him with solutions to his problems. Ohno, in return, greatly enjoyed Sho’s stories of the world beyond the kitchens of the Sakurai Mansion. They savoured each other’s company, and sometimes even spent the night together.
Good times didn’t last long, however. As Sho approached a marriageable age, his parents set about looking for suitable female partners for him, but he had already known for a long while that there would only be one person he could love, and that was Ohno.
When his parents found out - they had been caught together one night - Ohno had been made to leave the premises. Sho hadn’t been able to speak out on Ohno’s behalf that day. He had been punished as well, but the terrible look of the sorrow and resignation on Ohno’s face was the thing that would haunt Sho’s memories for years to come.
Sho had tried desperately to find Ohno at the start, but it was as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth. Sho’s parents had made sure of that.
Since then, Sho had gone on to college, which was the farthest he could get from his parents at the time. He made new friends like Aiba, but none of them could fill the gaping hole left by the baker’s apprentice.
The only things Sho remembered clearly, the only leads Sho had, were that Ohno had mentioned once that he wanted to have a bakery of his own someday, and that his favourite things to bake were chocolate cornets, the same ones that had brought him and Sho together all those years ago.
======
“And that’s why I always try the chocolate cornets at every new bakery I come across.” Sho concluded. “I hope that maybe, by some chance, I’ll be able to find him again… I still remember the taste of his chocolate cornets. They were out of this world.”
“Wow,” Aiba said. Then he said it again for emphasis. “Just, wow.”
“Sadly, I don’t think this is the one.” Sho sighed, turning the bitten cornet over in his hands before returning it to his mouth. Food was still food, though, and Sho refused to waste it.
“It’s such a romantic but sad story though,” Aiba mused. “I’ve decided, I’ll do my best to help you find the one you love! Project Find Oh-chan starts now!”
Sho smiled in a bittersweet way at the spontaneous nickname Aiba had given Ohno.
Aiba was as good as his word, though. Over the course of the next few months, he systematically went with Sho to every bakery in the area, and tasted all of their chocolate cornets.
So far, Sho had still not found Oh-chan. With weary hearts, they eventually stepped into the last new bakery they could find within the district.
Sho crossed his fingers, wished hard, and bit into the chocolate cornet. As if his prayer had finally been answered, the taste of this cornet swept around Sho’s mouth, tickling his taste buds and calling up vivid memories.
This is it, Sho thought. The taste I’ve been looking for all these years.
His heart skipped a beat as he looked up, eyes sparkling, and Aiba knew as well. Sho rushed to the back room, ignoring the protests of the service staff.
There, he saw a most familiar silhouette, and from his mouth tumbled out the words he used to say, when he was a boy rushing home to his best friend after school for the day’s special in baked goods.
“I’m home,” Sho said.
The figure turned around. His face was streaked with flour, exactly the way Sho remembered it, but it was also marked by new wrinkles from the passage of time and the stresses of growing up. Sho’s heart ached to see it, and he vowed on the spot to make up for the lost time.
“Welcome back,” Ohno replied simply.
Sho rushed into his embrace as Aiba looked on happily from the entrance to the kitchen.
“I do love a happy ending,” he remarked, to no one in particular.
Pairing: Yama (Ohno/Sho)
Rating: PG
Summary: Sho has a strange habit at every bakery he visits... what could be the reason?
Warnings: None
A/N: Written for
pompomshoes for 2018 fishing_mj :It's a simple and short story, but I really hope you enjoy it! I'm sorry it's not longer... RL was a struggle ^^; Shoutout goes to my favourite beta for being speedy and thorough, you know who you are ♥Aiba Masaki loved sweets. It was great, then, that one of his best friends at college, Sakurai Sho, loved them too. They would visit many cafés and bakeries together in their free time. But there was one thing that Sho always did at each new bakery that intrigued Aiba greatly.
Sho would always order the same thing first from each bakery - the chocolate cornet.
At the start, Aiba had thought that Sho simply liked chocolate cornets, but then, after he tasted it, his face would fall slightly, and he would never buy chocolate cornets again on subsequent trips to the same place.
This happened so often that Aiba couldn’t hold in his curiosity anymore. One day, when Sho bit into a chocolate cornet and looked forlornly at it for the umpteenth time, Aiba blurted out, “Sho-chan, why do you always do this?”
“Hmm?” Sho gazed at him with a mouthful of cornet.
“I mean, why do you always buy chocolate cornets the first thing when we visit new bakeries? And then you never buy them again.”
Sho swallowed his mouthful and sighed.
“It’s a long story, Aiba-chan.”
======
One of Sho’s fondest memories began one night, in his family’s mansion, when he was just a small boy.
Sho had never had to worry about food, not with his family’s financial affluence. There had been many chefs and apprentices to serve them whatever they desired at every meal. However, Sho had been sent to bed without dinner one night for a mistake he had made, something small that he couldn’t remember even now.
As the night wore on, Sho’s stomach had felt emptier and emptier, until at last he couldn’t stand it, and he crept towards the kitchens.
Along the way, Sho was surprised to find that he smelled the scent of baking bread at that time of the night, and a little light seeped through the gap at the bottom of the kitchen door. He could also hear the sounds of a little murmuring.
Wondering who could be here at such an hour, Sho quietly pushed open the door.
It was another boy who looked slightly older than himself. Startled, the boy stood up and reached for a nearby rolling pin.
Trying to sound bolder than he felt, Sho asked, “Who are you, and what are you doing here at this time of night?”
“I’m Ohno Satoshi.” The boy relaxed a little, but still held his grip. “I’m an apprentice to the head baker, and I’m practising making chocolate cornets.”
As the boy spoke, Sho noticed that indeed there was a sweet, fragrant smell of chocolate around, and that triggered a rumble from his tummy.
Ohno heard and couldn’t stop a giggle from escaping.
“Are you hungry?”
Sho blushed and said yes.
Putting down the rolling pin, Ohno deftly picked up a few pieces of misshapen chocolate cornet and offered them to Sho.
“I’m sorry these aren’t pretty… Master will throw them away if they aren’t perfect, so I stay late to practise and perfect my technique. I think they’re still edible though.”
Sho nodded. The standards set by his parents towards their kitchen staff were extremely high, and nothing less than perfect was allowed to be served.
He took a tentative bite of one of the cornets. Ohno was right, the flavour of the bread was in no way compromised by its appearance. The golden brown bread was soft and fluffy inside, and the chocolate filling left Sho’s tongue in ecstasy with its creamy sweetness.
“This is so good!” he marvelled as he wolfed the cornet down in its entirety. Now it was Ohno’s turn to blush.
“It’s not perfect…” he said, looking down at his feet.
“It tastes amazing!” Sho insisted.
That night, Sho finished half a tray of misshapen chocolate cornets, and found a new friend.
Over the years, the two of them grew closer, from sharing bread to sharing secrets and more. Sho liked how Ohno listened patiently to him, and always helped him with solutions to his problems. Ohno, in return, greatly enjoyed Sho’s stories of the world beyond the kitchens of the Sakurai Mansion. They savoured each other’s company, and sometimes even spent the night together.
Good times didn’t last long, however. As Sho approached a marriageable age, his parents set about looking for suitable female partners for him, but he had already known for a long while that there would only be one person he could love, and that was Ohno.
When his parents found out - they had been caught together one night - Ohno had been made to leave the premises. Sho hadn’t been able to speak out on Ohno’s behalf that day. He had been punished as well, but the terrible look of the sorrow and resignation on Ohno’s face was the thing that would haunt Sho’s memories for years to come.
Sho had tried desperately to find Ohno at the start, but it was as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth. Sho’s parents had made sure of that.
Since then, Sho had gone on to college, which was the farthest he could get from his parents at the time. He made new friends like Aiba, but none of them could fill the gaping hole left by the baker’s apprentice.
The only things Sho remembered clearly, the only leads Sho had, were that Ohno had mentioned once that he wanted to have a bakery of his own someday, and that his favourite things to bake were chocolate cornets, the same ones that had brought him and Sho together all those years ago.
======
“And that’s why I always try the chocolate cornets at every new bakery I come across.” Sho concluded. “I hope that maybe, by some chance, I’ll be able to find him again… I still remember the taste of his chocolate cornets. They were out of this world.”
“Wow,” Aiba said. Then he said it again for emphasis. “Just, wow.”
“Sadly, I don’t think this is the one.” Sho sighed, turning the bitten cornet over in his hands before returning it to his mouth. Food was still food, though, and Sho refused to waste it.
“It’s such a romantic but sad story though,” Aiba mused. “I’ve decided, I’ll do my best to help you find the one you love! Project Find Oh-chan starts now!”
Sho smiled in a bittersweet way at the spontaneous nickname Aiba had given Ohno.
Aiba was as good as his word, though. Over the course of the next few months, he systematically went with Sho to every bakery in the area, and tasted all of their chocolate cornets.
So far, Sho had still not found Oh-chan. With weary hearts, they eventually stepped into the last new bakery they could find within the district.
Sho crossed his fingers, wished hard, and bit into the chocolate cornet. As if his prayer had finally been answered, the taste of this cornet swept around Sho’s mouth, tickling his taste buds and calling up vivid memories.
This is it, Sho thought. The taste I’ve been looking for all these years.
His heart skipped a beat as he looked up, eyes sparkling, and Aiba knew as well. Sho rushed to the back room, ignoring the protests of the service staff.
There, he saw a most familiar silhouette, and from his mouth tumbled out the words he used to say, when he was a boy rushing home to his best friend after school for the day’s special in baked goods.
“I’m home,” Sho said.
The figure turned around. His face was streaked with flour, exactly the way Sho remembered it, but it was also marked by new wrinkles from the passage of time and the stresses of growing up. Sho’s heart ached to see it, and he vowed on the spot to make up for the lost time.
“Welcome back,” Ohno replied simply.
Sho rushed into his embrace as Aiba looked on happily from the entrance to the kitchen.
“I do love a happy ending,” he remarked, to no one in particular.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-08 09:12 am (UTC)Thanks for sharing this :)
no subject
Date: 2019-03-08 04:16 pm (UTC)